2006 Archive

December 2006

It's good to get back to my job-so I can catch up on my rest. I spent the holiday week working twelve hour days on the house. The framing is finished, wiring roughed in, and insulation begun.

I spent part of this weekend reading other people's mail. I don't think they'll mind much, since they've been dead for better than a century. But it does give you an idea of the sorts of fun you can have when renovating an older house.

---

Tecumseh March 1858

Dear Friend

As I am about to start for Ypsilanti & have not yet had a chance to see you any length of time, I thought I would drop you a few lines & ask you to bestow the honor of a correspondence upon me.
Dear Friend do^not feel

November 2006

The roofer is well into the copper on the main roof. I've begun to work on the upstairs front room. Old lath and plaster insulated with vermiculite and cellulose is such a joy to deal with.

I've been fiddling around a bit with the idea of making some high-resolution guide maps of some of my favorite places. The first is for Port Oneida

October 2006

There has been progress on the breezeway replacement despite the near daily rain. I expect the pallet of copper to be delivered some time in the next week or so, then the roofer can get started.

I've been working my way through a lot of old negatives and slides lately, and came across this shot of me at the potter's wheel in 1977.

I've also added some of my older experimental nudes to the gallery: Example A and Example B.

And yes, the grungy look is intentional.

September 2006

Spent a four-day weekend at Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.

Got a chance to ride the Leelanau Trail.

This stunning arachnid has been hanging out in the garden. The abdomen is just about 1 centimeter long.

This month it's been raining on most of the days I was prepared to work on the boat, so the progress to report is on things I can do inside.

August 2006

Progress on the boat. Landscaped the area behind the house. As you can see, we are also preparing for a repainting job. And, in the fashion we've come to expect, that project has blossomed into a small rebuilding.

July 2006

The first two weeks in July were spent in the town of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, doing flood relief. At the peak of the operation, we had ten of our Emergency Response Vehicles distributing food and supplies in the affected section of Bloomsburg and the surrounding area.

June 2006

June was partly spent on landscaping the back yard. We've installed some 6 yards of mulch, and another 2 of pea gravel.

May 2006

The last week in May was a busy one. It included: the 2006 Michigan Week Cup regatta in which I got to sail this pretty little Acorn Tender, touring some of the historic homes of Tecumseh during the annual Promenade weekend, three days at a WMD/Terrorism Threat Assessment workshop, installing cockpit seating in my boat project, landscaping work and scraping paint on the house. As a result I am (in order) bruised, footsore, scared witless, epoxy coated, and sunburned.

I'll write up the regatta after the organizer sends me some of the photographs of the race itself, which I was a bit too busy to photograph myself. Until then, I've put together a few of the photos.

January 2006

Flint and steel rope

This is the last of a very special bit of rope. How special is it? Well, the first indication would be that I inherited it.

The radiator won

I once lost an argument with half a ton of pissed off cast iron disguised as an extra large steam radiator.

Being the tale of a brief engagement between your humble narrator and a 150-year-old heating system.